Should I give up on AmEx CLI requests?

[Anonymous]

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@Anonymous wrote:

The reason for the denial is "Your recent payments are too low reletaive to your requested total line and your debt obligations with American Express." Can someone explain that to me? To me it sounds like I'm carrying a balance or something which I'm not and never have done.

Any tips on getting my score into the 800s?

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We would have to see your entire credit profile in order to determine where you can get your score to jump. 

I would call them and ask why they're making it sound like you owe them money if you pay the balance off in full every month. 

Personally I think it's more of a headache than it's worth and I would just leave it alone. I'm sure Discover and Barclays wouldn't mind giving you an increase on your two other cards. 

[Xistaben2]

Just as an off the cuff guess - if AMEX is giving that as a reason, they may be looking at the fact that you've only put 200-300ish through the card and PIF, so they really don't have a good idea on how much you are ABLE to pay at a given time, especially with a limit of 15k or so.

This is where income comes into play.  I'd say if CSP is your go to card, don't change a thing - keep trying, but I wouldn't expect much nor would I go out of my way for the extra padding.

[Anonymous]

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@Anonymous wrote:

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@Anonymous wrote:

The reason for the denial is "Your recent payments are too low reletaive to your requested total line and your debt obligations with American Express." Can someone explain that to me? To me it sounds like I'm carrying a balance or something which I'm not and never have done.

Any tips on getting my score into the 800s?

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We would have to see your entire credit profile in order to determine where you can get your score to jump. 

I would call them and ask why they're making it sound like you owe them money if you pay the balance off in full every month. 

Personally I think it's more of a headache than it's worth and I would just leave it alone. I'm sure Discover and Barclays wouldn't mind giving you an increase on your two other cards. 

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Ehh that's the thing, I did call their credit team and got connected to someone I could barely understand who seemed very short on patience. All he did was repeat what my denial letter said and offered no insight to the matter. Glad someone else thinks the denial reason isn't very clear though either, because I certainly owe no money to them. My balance was always paid in full each month. I'll leave it go for now, I suppose.

In my experience Discover has always been very stingy with ther CLIs. Though they did recently bump me up $1,000 without a CLI request.

Now on to a new question, then - should I request a CLI for my CSP card? They gave me a starting limit of $6,400 and I've never requested a CLI. I've used the card almost daily since I got it last year and I usually spend between $200-$300 per month on average, though some months it's near $500 and there's been a couple $1,000 months as well. 

[Anonymous]

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@Anonymous wrote:

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@Anonymous wrote:

I opened an American Express EveryDay card in August of 2014. This is my second year with the card. My initial CL was $2,500. I read all about the 3x CLI tricks and when I was able, I did a CLI request for $7,500 and was approved on the spot. That's where my limit sits to this day. I've tried 3 times since then, all within the appropriate amount of time (i.e. six months in between each request) and I've been denied for each request. My first request was for $22,500 (which would be 3x my current limit). Denied. Second request was for $15,000. Denied. Third request was for $10,000. Denied. Am I ever going to get another CLI from AmEx? Should I stop trying?

My credit score is in the 750 region. I've never missed a payment and I have credit going back 4 years. I make around $42,500 per year. Is $7,500 the highest I'm going to get with AmEx? I can understand why $22,500 wouldn't be approved since that's more than half of my annual income but $10k is only 1/4 of my income and I was still denied.

Any thoughts or insight would be appreciated

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I think the combination of 750 credit score and a $42,500 income is why they won't give you an increase above $7,500.

It's not a knock against you, that's still a good score, and decent income, but everyone is different, and it's my guess as to why they won't give you an increase.

Try getting your score into the 800's and then app again about a month after.... They might be willing to extend your credit a bit after that. 

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I agree. 

My limit started at $2000.  I asked for $6k which I got after more than 60 days. I somehow got auto CLI to $20k in less than 30days. I spent only around $1000 total for the whole time I had the card. Even $0 balance in a couple of months. 

My credit score is similar to yours but my income is not. So I think you need to bump up your income. And of course your credit score.

[Anonymous]

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@Anonymous wrote:

I agree. 

My limit started at $2000.  I asked for $6k which I got after more than 60 days. I somehow got auto CLI to $20k in less than 30days. I spent only around $1000 total for the whole time I had the card. Even $0 balance in a couple of months. 

My credit score is similar to yours but my income is not. So I think you need to bump up your income. And of course your credit score.

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Ah man I'm jealous! I'd love to have a credit card with a CL of over $20k just to have but with my income that's not going to happen. Not till after med school anyways! Guess I'll just have to be happy with what I've got for now

[Anonymous]

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@Anonymous wrote:

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@Anonymous wrote:

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@Anonymous wrote:

The reason for the denial is "Your recent payments are too low reletaive to your requested total line and your debt obligations with American Express." Can someone explain that to me? To me it sounds like I'm carrying a balance or something which I'm not and never have done.

Any tips on getting my score into the 800s?

---

We would have to see your entire credit profile in order to determine where you can get your score to jump. 

I would call them and ask why they're making it sound like you owe them money if you pay the balance off in full every month. 

Personally I think it's more of a headache than it's worth and I would just leave it alone. I'm sure Discover and Barclays wouldn't mind giving you an increase on your two other cards. 

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Ehh that's the thing, I did call their credit team and got connected to someone I could barely understand who seemed very short on patience. All he did was repeat what my denial letter said and offered no insight to the matter. Glad someone else thinks the denial reason isn't very clear though either, because I certainly owe no money to them. My balance was always paid in full each month. I'll leave it go for now, I suppose.

In my experience Discover has always been very stingy with ther CLIs. Though they did recently bump me up $1,000 without a CLI request.

Now on to a new question, then - should I request a CLI for my CSP card? They gave me a starting limit of $6,400 and I've never requested a CLI. I've used the card almost daily since I got it last year and I usually spend between $200-$300 per month on average, though some months it's near $500 and there's been a couple $1,000 months as well. 

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I would put about $4,000 or so a month on it, pay it off in full, and then ask for a CLI. 

An increased credit limit on your CSP will bump your score up a little bit. 

Make sure they do a soft pull... I know how Chase is, and they try to do everything to screw their customers over, so make sure it's clear you don't want them to do a hard pull. 

[Anonymous]

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@Anonymous wrote:

I would put about $4,000 or so a month on it, pay it off in full, and then ask for a CLI. 

An increased credit limit on your CSP will bump your score up a little bit. 

Make sure they do a soft pull... I know how Chase is, and they try to do everything to screw their customers over, so make sure it's clear you don't want them to do a hard pull. 

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Yeah $4k a month isn't going to happen! That would be $48,000 per year which is more than I even make.

Good to know about the SP/HP though, I've always heard Chase does a HP for CLI requests. Which is the reason I haven't requested one already. If I get denied on a SP, no big deal. But get denied with a HP and not only didn't I get the limit, but I have another inquiry on my credit report. 

[Anonymous]

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@Anonymous wrote:

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@Anonymous wrote:

I would put about $4,000 or so a month on it, pay it off in full, and then ask for a CLI. 

An increased credit limit on your CSP will bump your score up a little bit. 

Make sure they do a soft pull... I know how Chase is, and they try to do everything to screw their customers over, so make sure it's clear you don't want them to do a hard pull. 

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Yeah $4k a month isn't going to happen! That would be $48,000 per year which is more than I even make.

Good to know about the SP/HP though, I've always heard Chase does a HP for CLI requests. Which is the reason I haven't requested one already. If I get denied on a SP, no big deal. But get denied with a HP and not only didn't I get the limit, but I have another inquiry on my credit report. 

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Put about $3,000 a month on it. 

[KSK1912]

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@Anonymous wrote:

The reason for the denial is "Your recent payments are too low reletaive to your requested total line and your debt obligations with American Express." Can someone explain that to me? To me it sounds like I'm carrying a balance or something which I'm not and never have done.

Any tips on getting my score into the 800s?

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Looking at your spending pattern and the denial reason, they are saying your payments are too low relative to the credit line "You are requesting", meaning, if we give you what you are asking for, and you max the card, and keep making $200/month payments, it will take us 25 years to get our money back, so we will not give you that limit!

So based on  the spending / payments you are making monthly, this is the credit limit they are comfortable to give you. 2 things may take care of this issue, use it for another year, bump up your income a little and ask for cli, or start using the card more and make bigger payments, maybe at least $1K for couple months and ask for cli. Don't forget, if you are ever denied cli with amex, it is only 90 days you need to wait, not 6 months.

[longtimelurker]

Remember, despite the overwhelming mantra on this forum of "making cards grow"  if you use nowhere near your limits, and you always PIF (so you have total control of your utilization) you really don't need CLIs.   Don't waste time pursuing it IMO.   I would also consider seeing if you are getting value from the CSP once you pay the annual fee.   Given income, you probably can't put enough money through it to make it better than a free 2% card.